Runaways drummer Sandy West gets memorial in Dana Point

Cherie Currie, poses with the mermaid sculpture she made in tribute to her bandmate in the Runaways, drummer Sandy West. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

Sandy West Memorial Tribute

What: Dedication of a chain saw sculpture and monument created by Cherie Currie to honor Sandy West, the O.C.-bred drummer in the Runaways. A concert with musicians including Ian Mitchell of the Bay City Rollers and the Raymies, a teen girl band from San Clemente, will follow.

Where:Kenny's Music Store at 24731 La Plaza (at the corner of Golden Lantern) in Dana Point.

When:1 p.m. Friday.

For more:Contact Kenny's Music Store at Kennysmusicstore.com or 949-661-3984. Find out more about Cherie Currie's art and music at Cheriecurrie.com. A tribute Web site for West is located at Myspace.com/neon_angels.

"It was extremely dangerous getting as close to the saw as I had to do to get this," says Currie, who found fame in the Runaways, the punkish band of teenage girls who made a splash in the last half of the '70s.

"But me and Sandy were so close," Currie says of Runaways' drummer Sandy West, who grew up in Huntington Beach and died three years ago of lung cancer. "And I have no doubt that Sandy was with me, and working on this with me."

The project on which Currie worked, feeling West's presence beside her throughout, is a sculpture of a mermaid playing an electric guitar, a piece commissioned by Kenny's Music Store in Dana Point in tribute to West.

Currie talked about the project on Wednesday, as she drove from her home in West Hills to Dana Point to deliver both the sculpture and a memorial pedestal in which she inlaid a pair of West's drum sticks.

The statue and monument will be unveiled on Friday at the store, with a concert to follow in a small park across the street.

For Currie, the experience has left her feeling close once more to West, a best friend since their teenage days in the Runaways, whose primary members also included Joan Jett and Lita Ford.

(A Runaways biopic starring Dakota Fanning as Currie and Kristen Stewart as Jett is currently in the works. A relative unknown, Stella Maeve, who you may have caught on "Gossip Girl," is slated to play West.)

"Sandy was one of a kind," Currie says. "I know we use those words loosely, but I meant that sincerely. She was a tough girl. She could be scary. But she was a sweet as you could be."

As she worked on the statue, Currie says she felt her hands and her chain saw guided by her old friend.

"This carving to me had to be perfect," she says. "I could not make a single mistake, and let me tell you, getting that saw up in between the hands and the guitar, it was tough."

Both the statue, which includes a seal and a sea turtle on its base, and the monument are adorned with shells and shiny baubles. Most precious to Currie, though, were the drum sticks West's family gave her to include in the monument's base.

"I wanted a pair of sticks that she had played with," Currie says. "I wanted something that had her energy and her incredible beautiful soul had passed through."

Kimberly Williams, who with husband Kenny Williams owns and operates Kenny's Music, said her husband came across a chain saw sculpture by Currie online - a Laguna Beach doctor's commission for woman in a yoga pose - and contacted Currie.

"Kenny said, 'Wouldn't it be neat to do a memorial for Sandy?'" Kimberly Williams says. "And she went, 'Oh my gosh, that's a wonderful idea!'"

As plans for a ceremony to dedicate the work took shape, Williams eventually decided to expand the celebration into a benefit concert for the son of friends who is fighting leukemia.

The lineup now includes players such as Ian Mitchell of the Bay City Rollers, Martin Gerschwitz who played keyboards for Iron Butterfly and the Animals, and the Raymies, a Runaways-styled band of teenage girls from San Clemente around whom considerable buzz is building.

Gretchen Bonaduce, ex-wife of Danny Bonaduce, a friend of Currie's and current star of her own reality TV series, will also perform.

But most of all the day is a celebration of West, one of the first female drummers in rock.

"This one is like nothing I've ever done before," Currie said the special place these pieces hold in her heart. "As much work as it was, it was a pleasure for me, and I felt Sandy with me always."

Cherie Currie, poses with the mermaid sculpture she made in tribute to her bandmate in the Runaways, drummer Sandy West. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
Drummer Sandy West, shown performing in this undated file photo, died in October 2006 at age 47.
The Runaways made a splash in the late '70s as an all-girl punkish rock band. In this 1977 photo, the lineup included, from left, Joan Jett, Sandy West, Cherie Currie, Vicki Blue and Lita Ford BARRY LEVINE, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
After finishing the sculpture, Currie and an assistant seal the Sequoia redwood. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
As Currie began to chainsaw the large redwood log, a mermaid begins to appear. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
The hands are carved, the guitar body inlaid with shells and other shiny baubles. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
A sea turtle and a seal peek out from the base of the mermaid's statue. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
The statue is almost finished. On Friday, June 26, it will be unveiled in a memorial tribute ceremony for Sandy West, drummer of the Runaways, who grew up in O.C. and died of cancer three years ago. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
The mermaid gazes into the distance. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
The monument created to accompany the mermaid sculpture includes a pair of Sandy West's drum sticks. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
A concrete monument made by Currie includes a pair of Sandy West's drumsticks and this plaque. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

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